Should You Buy Smart Shutters?

Whether as a Christmas present or looking ahead to the spring season ahead, quite a few people are looking into fitting solid wood shutters to their windows, particularly the ones at the front of their house where the privacy benefits are maximised.

However, a concept known as smart shutters might have caught their eye as an intelligent, easy way to automatically adjust their blinds for different conditions.

Smart shutters, like most smart devices, are shutters or solid blinds that use a technology known as the internet of things (IoT) to connect to a central home hub, which itself is activated via a smartphone.

This lets you open and close the blinds no matter where you are in the house, and allows you to schedule when shutters open and how much they open, allowing for much better light and temperature control than would be obtained manually.

Beyond the basic convenience of not having to get up and manually move shutters, there are some more substantial advantages to installing smart shutters, depending on the system you use and how it is set up.

Some shutter systems are fitted with light intensity sensors that can automatically adjust the position of slats to avoid glare and to help maintain an optimal target temperature, with settings that can be adjusted and saved depending on the season.

These sensors also can detect strong winds or potential projectiles and automatically close and retract to protect people inside the house, or open completely in case of a fire.

Given that smart shutters often cost a lot more to set up and sometimes require bespoke wiring, the question of whether they are worth it will vary considerably depending on how much that convenience and novelty are worth to you.

For most people and most types of shutters, smart shutters might add a little functionality if set up carefully, but for the most part, are not worth it right now for what they can offer.